An Afternoon's Stroll
by Oriondruid
Summary: You never know what you'll see or who you'll bump into in London if you go out for a stroll. In my case it was completely life changing.


**An Afternoon's Stroll**

By Oriondruid.

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**Summary: **_This is very much a 'wish fulfilment tale'. One which had been sitting around on my hard drive for ages in an incomplete state which I decided to take a crack at completing. It features many 'real world' places and the male character very transparently represents myself. :o) I hope however it proves entertaining and indeed informative to some readers, if not least about the area of Muggle London in which The Leaky Cauldron may be found, if only it could be! ;o)_

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**Disclaimer: **The following story is a 'not for profit' piece, written by an amateur purely for entertainment purposes and I am thankful that Ms. J.K. Rowling is so kind to her fans as to permit us to 'play' for a little while in her world and meet some of her wonderful characters.

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**An Afternoon's Stroll.**

I've always liked the part of London around Charing Cross Road and on up to Tottenham Court Road. The former for it's many bookshops and for the musical instrument shops around Denmark Street, (also known as Tin Pan Alley), which leads off of the main road. Tottenham Court Road leads up towards Euston Road, and is interesting to me because of it's mass of electronics and gadget shops. Over the years the area has changed a lot though, with many much loved old haunts now gone, but still it retains a strong degree of interest. Sadly favourite old shops have closed down but new ones have taken their place and I still like to wander around that part of London sometimes, although at the time of the events in the following tale I had not done so for quite some while, since I'd stopped living and working in Central London.

However, to begin my story, a couple of years back in the spring I took a stroll around the area, just to see what was new. One change I noted was the disappearance of a very old friend, a second-hand bookshop that had been on it's site near one of the entrances to Leicester Square tube station for many decades. I can remember it being there ever since I first started working in London as a young lad, way back at the end of the Sixties. The old, previously green painted premises which had been a presence there for so long has now been replaced by a new business and it is now a coffee shop/café, with the building's frontage updated, repainted and smartened up.

Apart from the fact that this place was such a landmark to me for so long I've always thought (being a massive Harry Potter fan) that perhaps it was very close to the theoretical location of The Leaky Cauldron. This being JK Rowling's famous fictional wizarding pub, which acts as the Central London gateway into the Wizarding World and it's wonders, opening, as it does, onto Diagon Alley.

The change of the building's use must have happened within only a very few years, since the premises as it used to appear is in fact able to be momentarily glimpsed in the opening scenes of the film version of The Half Blood Prince! This being the part in which we see the the Death Eaters flying from Trafalgar Square, up Charing Cross Road at just above street level, on their way to abduct Mr. Ollivander from his wand shop, and then going on to destroy the Millennium Bridge. If you slow the sequence right down and then step frame by frame through the opening part of the movie then, sure enough, there it is. But I guess saying that simply displays what a Potterhead 'nerd' I am for knowing that. :o)

Back to my stroll in the 'real world' that afternoon. I was certainly sorry to see the old bookshop gone and felt yet another bit of the London I had known for years was lost forever. Feeling a bit sad and nostalgic I went and got a drink at the pub opposite the new coffee shop, an establishment called The Porcupine. As it was a fairly hot day for the time of year I sat in the shade at an outside table, doing a bit of 'people watching', as swarms of both Londoners and tourists went by, whilst I supped my ice cold lager.

Gradually however I became aware of a slight anomaly I'd never noticed before amongst the crowds of people who came past me, headed up the Charing Cross Road going towards Tottenham Court Road. Something I'd never noticed before, since, as a rule I didn't linger in any one spot in the area to observe passers by. However, on this occasion I saw that several of the passers-by seemed, over a period of time's observation, to be wearing somewhat odd and/or anachronistic clothing. It took some while for me to consciously notice it, as weird outfits are not that unusual amongst the cosmopolitan London crowds.

However, nowhere else, (apart from possibly around Camden Market which in any case is on a 'different planet'), had I ever seen such a predominance of unusual clothing, such as variously coloured cloaks over slightly old fashioned 'Edwardian' looking apparel. That or mismatched and inappropriate clothing items, the weirdest of which being an oldish looking chap with long grey hair, wearing what looked like a cut down wet suit under a denim jacket and green Wellington boots with daisies on them! I was amazed at this 'sartorial vision' and out of sheer curiosity and swallowing the rapidly warming dregs of my lager I decided to discretely follow him at a bit of a distance as he headed up the road past the new coffee bar, just to see where he would end up. I thought it possible he might be an actor appearing in one of the many nearby theatres and that might be where he was heading to or from, but what the nature of the production might be that would require such an outlandish costume I couldn't even begin to hazard a guess!

I didn't have to follow him far however, as he only went a few more yards up Charing Cross Road and then, as far as I could see from where I was back down the road a little, (and with my view partially obscured by several people between us on the pavement), he seemed to walk straight into the entrance of a premises and swiftly disappeared from view.

I carried on to the point further along the pavement which I took to be where I had seen him walk out of view and saw no theatre, shop or office entrance, only a small metal gate made of thick black vertical bars, with an intercom and door-code security panel by it's side. This must have been the place he'd gone into. However unless the gate was already open I didn't see how he could have, as he did not even break step or, (as far as I had been able to see), had he used any entry code even if he'd had time to do so, which he hadn't. Looking through the metal bars the strange man was nowhere to be seen in the courtyard within the gate, although he'd not had time to cross the open space inside and enter the building that was there.

'_Odd, to say the least,_' As I leaned up against the locked gate I could see what looked like a private block of flats or serviced apartments across the courtyard inside, probably very expensive places considering where they were located, hence the entrance gate's security system. What such an oddball person as I had seen apparently entering this gate to those swanky premises could possibly be doing in there I had no idea.

My imagination and curiosity went into overdrive and I started to speculate about this strange event, trying to rationalise the several unusual observations I had made that afternoon, but I could draw no sensible conclusion. '_Okay_,' I thought. '_Insufficient data would describe this situation, so lets keep 'obo' on this place for a little while and see if anything else weird happens._'

I crossed through a gap in the traffic to the opposite side of Charing Cross Road and sat in the shade on the front step of a premises more or less opposite the gate, but tried to seem as if I wasn't really observing it, just sitting down for a while to get my breath back. Twenty minutes went by and just as I was about to give up my vigil another oldish looking gentleman in a long black velvet cloak walked up to the gate and to my utter astonishment, but without the apparent notice of the other nearby pedestrians, walked straight through the bars of the gate, without opening it, or even breaking step!

After the shock wore off I thought to myself, '_Did I say insufficient data! Well old son, you've certainly got enough now! There's only one explanation for that which any self-respecting Harry Potter fan can come up with to fit the observed facts. That's the new entrance to The Leaky Cauldron! It's bloody real!' _

My train of thought continued. '_It's not exactly as JKR described it, but, just as in the muggle street here, maybe there's been some changes made to the Charms on the entrance following the war. After all, the buildings around have been altered, why not the way into the pub, now that so many people know about it because of Jo's books and the films? That solid looking metal gate with it's thick bars looks boringly 'normal' enough and the security devices certainly would tend to discourage unwanted muggles from attempting to enter, but looking through it gives no hint of anything very out of place inside in any case, it must be magically disguised. Obviously there must be some sort of Charmed Zone around the gate that stops muggles from noticing people just walking through it. I must be out of range of it's influence over here, because I can see what's really happening. But then again, even if someone did by chance see anything odd from over here they'd tend to just think their eyes were playing tricks. In any case to see it happen at all, like me, they'd probably need to be watching very keenly at precisely the right moment to notice such a thing.'_

_'Okay'. _I thought to myself. _'If The Leaky Cauldron is real and that's the way into it then there's no way I'm leaving here without having a crack at getting inside, I've got to see it! Obviously, as a muggle, I can't just walk through the metal of the bars, I need a witch or wizard to help me get in. So either I can try and trick one of them or simply try asking for their help. I need to think about this.' I thought. 'Which method stands the best chance of success and is honesty going to be the best policy?'_

I settled back down on my step and pondered my best course of action, whilst still keeping half an eye on the gate and pavement opposite. I carried on observing for some twenty minutes or so, keeping my attention on the people approaching the gate from each direction on the opposite side of the road. Suddenly I saw someone who I thought I recognised, from her description in Jo's books coming from the direction of the Underground Station entrance. She was a pretty, petite, 'fey' looking ash blond young lady, one fairly normally dressed for a warm day in London, wearing a bright yellow, slightly 'floaty' and 'hippyfied' sun dress. She seemed a lot like a slightly more grown-up version of a person fitting Jo's description of one of my favourite witches, Luna Lovegood. I hurried across the road through a fortuitous gap in the heavy traffic. I had no idea what I would say to her if it turned out my guess was correct, but knowing Luna's incredibly intuitive character from JKR's stories I decided immediately that being honest with her would be my best course of action. Luna after all is far too clever and strongly psychic to be fooled by a lie.

She was about ten feet away from the gate when I got close to her, and I said '_Excuse me Miss, sorry to disturb you but you're Luna Lovegood, aren't you? I've always wanted to meet you.'_

She had looked a little distracted whilst walking up the street and I think my question may have startled her, as she jumped slightly in surprise, but immediately rallied and looking at me with curiosity replied; _"Yes, that's me, where did you hear about me from? Not in those flaming book JK Rowling wrote was it? If she wasn't such a fine writer and hadn't done such a great job in her stories about Harry and the war I'm fairly sure she would have been Obliviated on Ministry orders years ago. But of course through her connections to our world she was protected during the conflict and in any case once the first book was published and took off so spectacularly the 'cat was out of the bag', with far too many muggles coming to know about us. So for now we just have to count on most thinking it was all just stories, which thankfully they do."_

_'Yes your right.'_ I replied. '_I'm a fan of Jo's writing myself and that's how I happened to be here and spotted you. You were on your way into The Leaky Cauldron I take it? Should I call you Mistress Lovegood or may I use your first name, Luna? By the way I'm called Ben, Ben Etherington to be precise and it's a great pleasure and honour to meet you."_

"_Luna is my name, so of course you may use it Ben." _She replied, smiling._ "I take it you must have found the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron before I even got here? If so then well done, we don't make it easy for muggles to locate the place. I bet you are probably about to ask me if I will take you in there, am I right?"_

Knowing how very intelligent and how strong an empath Luna is I was not surprised that she had worked out my intentions so quickly, so I simply smiled back at her and replied; '_Yes, I was rather hoping that I might impose on you to help me get in, so that I could see The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley for myself, it would be a dream come true for me.'_

She remained silent for a moment, taking time to think then replied, saying;_"Very well." _Then she continued, looking slightly grim faced and a little stern, a look which didn't suit her. _"Having got this close and sensing, as I do, your reasons to be so heartfelt it would be cruel of me to deny you your wish. After all it's not like many other muggles haven't already entered our world before you. However, I must warn you Ben, there may well be a price! Even though the war is now over and we are at peace and that even the International Statute of Secrecy itself may soon be greatly loosened, we in our world still currently hold our privacy dear and if you come inside then it may well be that we will later have to Obliviate you to remove all memories of this meeting, should we feel that you cannot be trusted to keep what you see and learn about us confidential. This is a very serious matter Ben, Obliviation is not a precise science and if we are forced to use it you may lose a few more memories than we'd intend, so please take some time to decide before answering if you agree to these terms. I suggest we go to that nice looking muggle pub just down the road and we can have a cold drink, whilst you think it over."_

Then she smiled and looking far more relaxed, said; "_My it's hot today, I should have cast a Cooling Charm on myself before I left home, but I forgot and once I'd arrived here in the basement of the side street building which we now use as a safe local Apparition Point and I'd entered the crowded muggle street I could hardly whip out my wand to do so. In any case it'll be cooler in The Leaky Cauldron and no doubt that other pub has one of those clever muggle made air cooling machines anyway, so it should be a pleasant place to sit whilst you consider what I've said."_

_'That sounds great Luna, thank you for the warning too, you've been very fair.' _I replied. '_We'll do as you suggest Luna, and what's more I'm buying. I know that pub well and I was there earlier today. It doesn't do Butterbeer, or any other wizarding drinks, but they will have a nice cool glass of decent Chablis that I'm sure you'll like.' _Then I held out my arm and she linked hers inside it and together we headed off down the road a little for our drink and my time to ponder Luna's offer and warning.

Soon we found ourselves seated back in the pub I'd been at earlier, but this time at an inside table in the cooler air conditioned interior of the premises. Luna had taken my suggestion and held a copious glass of wine, which she seemed to like, whilst I had a lager shandy, not wanting to get tipsy. I already knew what my answer to Luna's 'terms' would be even before we'd reached the place, so rather than waste any time thinking any more about it instead I decided to use the time to converse with this beautiful, charming, brave and powerful young witch, a heroine of The Battle of Hogwarts no less, whom I had been so lucky to meet! She was of course far younger than myself, she could almost be my daughter or even granddaughter, so I certainly had no amorous intentions towards her. But she had been through so much in her childhood and teens and I was sure she had, in actual fact, much experience of many more issues in life than any I had ever had in my entirely more 'sedate' existence. I wanted to draw her out a little and started by asking her about something she'd said a little earlier.

I asked her._ 'Luna, I noted something interesting that you said earlier and it intrigues me, you said Jo Rowling was in some way associated with the Wizarding World, other than simply writing about it, and that this meant she was 'protected' as you put it. If it's not so secret that you can't tell me may I ask what that connection is?'_

Luna replied, saying; "_Ben, in the position you now find yourself in now there is no point in keeping anything secret from you, for the reasons I gave earlier. If I or any others you may meet later sense you are likely to betray us, then anything I do tell you now will be Obliviated from your mind anyway, so on that basis here goes nothing." _Luna smiled at me, a smile that lit up the pub, but which as it faded also held a faint tinge of sadness, as she recalled the past.

She then spoke, saying;_ "Ms. Joanne Rowling is a squib, but not just any squib, she's Albus Dumbledore's God Daughter! A secret that was hidden even more deeply than that of Voldemort's horcruxes. As a child Jo became almost as dear to him as his long lost sister and she has always been protected, first by Dumbledore himself personally, then later by a select few members of The Order of the Phoenix, after he was murdered. However, in any case, Tom Riddle and his Death Eaters in their arrogance never paid any great deal of attention to muggles and their affairs, it being considered 'beneath their dignity' to do so. Because the links Jo had to the Wizarding World were, as I said, very well hidden they never had any reason to seek out and attack her. So even though Dumbledore could never tell her everything he knew directly face to face he did ensure that, once she had grown up and decided to write her books, that she would have all the information she required to do so accurately. That information being supplied by covert means through an intermediary, a House Elf, who owed loyalty to Dumbledore personally and carried on helping Jo even after Dumbledore's death. It was this House Elf who carried the messages containing the information Jo Rowling needed to chronicle the magical war and indeed since Dumbledore's sad death he is now, in effect, 'her Elf' and lives with her household as an honoured friend, not as a bonded servant. _

Luna smiled slightly signifying I thought, her approval of the idea that House Elves could now be free and carried on speaking; "_The revelation of our secrets to Jo by Dumbledore was done despite, of course, all Wizarding Laws being to the contrary, as Dumbledore felt certain that it is vital that the two branches of humanity magical and muggle must reunite and that wizarding folk and muggles must learn to live together in harmony and peace, for the benefit of all. Dumbledore believed that far too much damage had been done to our world by conflicts, both magical and muggle and that much of the damage to the environment and to society could be healed if humanity were able to become whole again. He left the story about his beliefs regarding reunification and his many other secrets in a deeply hidden Gringott's vault that even the Goblins themselves knew nothing about and which was enchanted only to become visible and open upon Voldemort's death. _

_Luna continued, saying; "I think Dumbledore was certainly right in his beliefs, as Daddy and myself keep pointing out in The Quibbler. Indeed even now, as we speak, the Ministry are trying out two small scale integration experiments at Ottery St. Catchpole and Godric's Hollow, to see if what Dumbledore'd hoped for would be possible to safely bring about. It's going well in both places so far, with no problems, other than a couple of 'Dursley Syndrome' sufferers, (as it's now known). Those being muggles unable to reconcile themselves to magic and thus having to be helped to relocate after being Obliviated. We are hoping that sympathetic muggle psychologists might eventually be able to help these poor people and that even they too might one day be able to integrate with us, but in any case the numbers of these sufferers are so small, with just two individuals so far discovered in the 'test sites' having such attitudes full-blown, that it does not as yet cause much concern about the experiment or any other great problems."_

Having made these startling revelations Luna took another sip of her wine and sat back, giving me a little time to take the information in. She then took advantage of the silence to ask me a question, saying; _" One thing's puzzling me too Ben, that's exactly how you managed to find the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron before I arrived? It should be all but impossible for any muggle to do so without magical help."_

I then explained to Luna the full story about the afternoon's events, the details of which she listened to intensely. When I came to the end of my story at the moment we'd met up she spoke, saying; _"Very interesting Ben. Perhaps we ought to better teach our older citizens how to blend in a little better when 'out and about' in muggle London, particularly when nearby The Leaky Cauldron. Although most of us younger witches and wizards can do so already, pretty well, the Muggleborns fashion choices and taste having influenced our own, so that even most young Purebloods now can blend in easily in muggle surroundings. In any case many of us spend a lot of our time in 'muggle territory' nowadays and can't be distinguished by our dress sense or ignorance of muggle culture. Indeed some of my own favourite restaurants in Soho are muggle run establishments, which I frequent often when I'm in London. _

Luna looking slightly excited then said;_ "However, back to your having located The Leaky Cauldron, you said you had been able to see the second man enter the pub by walking through the gate, from a position on the opposite side of the road. Well Ben, I must tell you that hearing this tells me one important thing about you! I'm fairly certain that you yourself must have some degree of magical ability, since no muggle should have been able to see such an event anywhere within fifty yards of the entrance, which is the range the Concealment Charms extend over. You were well inside that distance being just over the road, therefore you must have some magical powers yourself or you would never have seen what you did! This is amazing!" _

_Luna's smile beamed at me, lighting up the pub as she went on, saying. "It's very rare but not unknown, I think it likely you are a 'Missing Muggleborn' Ben. This is something that sometimes happened during all the upheaval over the last half century or more of major wars and social upheaval this country has been engaged in. Due to both muggle and magical conflicts, such as the muggle's Second World War, the Grindlewald Magical War and the more recent twin conflicts due to Tom Riddle's evil plans to subjugate both of our worlds. Some records became lost and officials either became distracted or corrupted. As a result the detection of new Muggleborns by the Ministry got less effective and sadly several Muggleborn witches and wizards appear to have remained undiscovered and untrained. Because of this I think that you're probably currently a fairly low-grade wizard Ben."_

"_But cheer up." _She smiled again, probably seeing on my face the sadness and shock of the loss her words had brought to me. _"After all you're certainly a bit more than a squib, and now I'm certain that it's vital that you do come into our world for a visit, as you wished to, since your abilities need to be tested and Ollivander's is the best place to have that done. It's not just a wand shop now, since the war it has also become a place where many people needing help with their magic, as well as simply needing new wands can go, following traumas they've been through in the war which might have damaged their powers or self-confidence. Mr Ollivander and his staff I'm sure can also discover your abilities and limitations there and help you make the best of whatever latent powers you do have. I hope you have decided to come with me Ben, it would be for the best, since untrained magic, even weak magic is not safe and we can help you I'm sure."_

I beamed back at Luna and replied; '_I long since decided to accompany you into The Leaky Cauldron my dear Luna. Before we sat down at this table I'd already made up my mind and not even a dragon on the door couldn't keep me out!'_

Luna grinned upon hearing my words, the said; _"We'd better be going then, I'd like to get to Ollivander's before the shop closes and it's getting late."_ With that I nodded in agreement and both of us finished our drinks and stood up, linked arms again and took the short walk a mere few yards up the Charing Cross Road, into another world and, for me, into the start of a whole new life!

**Afterword.**

I'm so glad it was Luna Lovegood that fate helped me bump into that day. Her strong empathic talent and sympathetic personality helped me enter this 'new world' in which I now live. I now know I'll never be a 'proper' full-blown wizard, it's too late for that as I'm too old and I missed out on going to Hogwarts when I was younger. But inspired by my new friend Neville Longbottom's stories and advice, regarding his early difficulties in using his magic, and with the excellent training supplied by Mr. Ollivander and his sympathetic staff my weak powers have become a fair bit stronger and I now feel I fit into my 'new world'. Nevertheless, I still like to take the odd amble up and down the Charing Cross Road, around Denmark Street and along Tottenham Court Road, nosing in the muggle shops and taking in the changes. After all, it's such a nice area for an afternoon's stroll. :o)


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